The present invention relates to a sensor element for opening of doors and gates, in which case a sensing field can be generated using an antenna element for the purpose of detecting people and/or static objects.
Multifarious forms and designs of such sensor elements are known and available commercially. They are used to generate a sensing field in front of a door and/or gate area and are usually arranged above doors or gates. They are also usually in the form of stationary sensors, infrared sensors or radar sensors and detect stationary objects and/or people in the sensing field in front of a door in order to keep the latter open or to open it.
Since such sensor elements have to be adjustable or have to be adjusted to different heights and widths for particular door areas in order to generate an optimized sensing field for different heights and doors and gates of different widths, a complicated control device and adjusting devices have hitherto been provided on the sensor elements in order to adjust an angle of inclination of the sensor, for example, or to carry out optical adaptation or the like, which is undesirable.
For example, as a result of doors of different heights, the sensor element, in particular a radar sensor, is often set and readjusted after installation in order to set and align a sensing field to the conditions. The setting and alignment or adjustment operation is also time-consuming and expensive.
In particular, the operation of manually installing and aligning and adjusting sensing fields in front of doors and gates involves a high level of installation and alignment outlay, which is likewise undesirable.
EP 1 508 818 A exhibits a radar sensor in which individual slot antennas are provided in the carrier element.
US 2002/036595 A1 describes an antenna in which individual antennas are arranged at the same distance from one another. An antenna array is described in EP 1 113 523 A1, in which a plurality of pin antennas are likewise arranged at equal distances around an antenna element.
The publication by Schlub R. et al.: “Dual-band six-element switched parasitic array for smart antenna cellular communications systems” ELECTRONIC LETTERS, IEE STEVENAGE, GB, vol. 36, no. 16, 3 Aug. 2000 (2000 Aug. 3), pages 1342-1343, XP006015551 ISSN: 0016-5194” describes a conventional array antenna in which only individual arrays are provided in order to influence a field in different ways. Although some antennas may be arranged in different lengths, it is not possible to accurately determine a clear delimitation and boundary of a field.
The citation MURATA M ET AL.: “Planar active Yagi-like antenna” ELECTRONICS LETTERS, IEE STEVENAGE, GB, vol. 36, no. 23, 9 Nov. 2000 (2000 Nov. 9), pages 1912-1913, XP006015913 ISSN: 0013-5194 discloses an antenna in which the antennas are inserted into conductor tracks in a planar structure. Said antenna does not have any separate pins.
The present invention is based on the object of providing a sensor element for opening of doors and gates, in which the length and width of a sensing field can be exactly preset in order to ensure sufficient protection and a sufficient sensing field for opening of doors and gates for doors and gates of a particular width at an installation height or passage height which can be determined and selected.
In this case, the intention is to dispense with manual setting-up and readjustment, in which case only the sensor element has to be installed at a determinable height above or beside doors and gates in order to ensure an optimum sensing field in front of the door and/or gate.